With today's technology, it is relatively easy for people to create content and to share that content around the world. For instance, a person may become a content creator by simply taking a picture or a video with a smartphone, or by posting a comment to a social media website. And numerous different content sharing services on the Internet enable people to share content around the world. A small sample of such content sharing services includes those known by names or trademarks such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook.
In addition, the content creator may be entitled to copyright protection for the content that he or she creates. Furthermore, the content creator might not want other people to reuse his or her content at all, or the content creator might at least want to be acknowledged as the creator. In addition or alternatively, the content creator might want to be compensated for use of the content. However, with conventional technology, it may be difficult or impossible to actually put copyright protection into effect for content that has been shared electronically. For instance, it may be difficult or impossible to conclusively determine who the creator of the content was. It may also be difficult or impossible to prevent others from copying and modifying the content. And for modified content, it may be difficult or impossible to conclusively determine which parts were modified and by whom.
As described in greater detail below, the present disclosure introduces technology to facilitate copyright protection of digital content.